What is the future of public education in the United States? Sadly, if policy developments of the kind underway in North Carolina and several other states continue to take hold, it could be quite bleak. Where once we viewed and treated public schools as both an essential “common good” institution and a critical bulwark of our democracy, today they are increasingly marginalized as just another consumer “product” to be consigned to the vagaries of “the market.”

The results of this attitude shift are palpable and destructive: Privatization, vouchers, unfettered charter schools and re-segregation are all on the rise as families, schools and communities scramble to “compete” to protect their own narrow, short-term interests.

Fortunately, more and more groups and individuals are standing up to resist these trends. And among this group no one is more visible or effective than Diane Ravitch. Diane Ravitch is Research Professor of Education at New York University and a historian of education.

From 1991 to 1993, she was Assistant Secretary of Education and Counselor to Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander in the administration of President George H. W. Bush. She was responsible for the Office of Educational Research and Improvement in the U.S. Department of Education. As Assistant Secretary, she led the federal effort to promote the creation of voluntary state and national academic standards.

From 1997 to 2004, she was a member of the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the federal testing program. She was appointed by the Clinton administration’s Secretary of Education Richard Riley in 1997 and reappointed by him in 2001. From 1995 until 2005, she held the Brown Chair in Education Studies at the Brookings Institution and edited Brookings Papers on Education Policy. Before entering government service, she was Adjunct Professor of History and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Ravitch is an author of several important books including The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education (2010). She blogs prolifically at dianeravitch.net[6].

Don’t miss this chance to hear from this important American at this critical moment.